The Chinese community has been shocked by an outrageous case of psychiatrists “running away” from a hospital, along with 64 patients over the weekend.

The Guihang 300 Hospital released an announcement on its official website Saturday, declaring that 64 patients being treated at the hospital had left, led by the director of psychiatry, Yang Shaolei, without informing the patients’ families or going through any formal procedures. Meanwhile, 11 other staff members of the psychiatry department had quit before getting official approval by the hospital, the announcement said.

The hospital immediately reported the incident to the police and later confirmed that the psychiatrists and patients had been transferred to Guiyang No.6 Hospital, according to the announcement.

“The hospital believes this is a planned incident that severely infringes on the patients' guardians' right to know and choose, maliciously offends the professional integrity of the medical staff, and tramples industry rules for healthy competition…” the hospital said, and it will “hold the involved medical staffers accountable according to the law”.

An undercover investigation at the Guiyang No.6 Hospital by a CCTV reporter who pretended to be a patient’s family member, revealed that the doctors and nurses’ collective departure was motivated by higher pay and “better medical conditions” in the new hospital, although there was no verification from the side of the patients or their families showing they transferred for better medical services.

Yang dismissed the claim by Guihang 300 Hospital that he took the patients without informing their guardians, saying that he had contacted all the families to get their approval before the patients left the hospital. Yang also said that he had issued the necessary certificates to patients for hospital discharges, but all the papers had been repealed by the hospital.

Yang said he was “giving a helping hand” at Guiyang No.6 Hospital right now, without signing a formal labor contract, which was confirmed by the hospital’s head, Kang Zhengmao. Kang said they “do need to introduce medical talents, but haven’t employed Yang since he hasn’t finished his resignation formalities.”

Local health authorities had been informed of the incident and had intervened, said an official with Huaxi District Health and Family Planning Bureau of Guiyang city.

Guihang 300 Hospital is rated as a Class A hospital in China’s official 3-tier hospital rating system, where a hospital is rated according to its ability to provide medical care, medical education, and to conduct medical research.